Fun Weekend

Week 16 got off to a great start with a nice Thanksgiving and relaxing weekend. Katie and I did venture out on the morning of Black Friday and had a fun time scoping out the deals (the only downside... the 100 MINUTE line at Kohl's!!!) I was surprised at how physically exhausted I was after shopping all day as I am usually a pretty active person. I did stay away from baby stuff for the most part, but ended up buying a really cute book and a Christmas onesie for the baby next year. Marshall also got into the swing of things this year since he finally bought a Wii and we have been playing the various games the past couple of days. The most fun for us has been the Guitar Hero World Tour where we have to play the guitar, drums and also sing... it has been quite entertaining and I'm sure Marlee is really confused as to what we are doing! Also I read somewhere the the baby can start to hear what is going on, so I'm sure listening to us sing/play Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" has been a fun introduction to the sounds of the world. I also bought some stuff at Michaels to make my own wreath for our front door as well as a garland for our mantle. I started with just the basic greenery and then added decorations, bows, bells, lights and flowers for the finishing touches. I even learned how to make the bow for the wreath by watching a how to video on You Tube. I had a fun time putting it all together and enjoy doing projects like that. Now I just need to get motivated again to go back to work after the nice relaxing 4-day weekend!


Wreath before


Wreath after


Mantle before


Mantle after


Front of Onesie


The back of the onesie... "My 1st Christmas"


My guitar hero! :)

Bring on the food!

So we are in week 15 now and I posted another pic. What is funny is that I have noticed most myself in the pictures is my change in clothing from what I normally would wear to what is comfortable over these last 2 months or so! I know that Marshall must be loving seeing me in those big green sweats all of the time!

We are heading to Bakersfield this weekend to spend Thanksgiving with our friends Katie & Jason as Jason's parents house. We always have a wonderful time and tons of food, so I am really looking forward to that! I honestly found myself daydreaming at work today about what I was going to eat when I am there... guess I'd better not forget to bring the sweats with the elastic waist!

Today's Appointment

So we saw the doctor again today. Everything seemed to be measuring right on schedule and he found the heartbeat again no problem - 144 beats per minute! He told me that last time four weeks ago it was 144 as well, so the baby likes to be consistent! I also haven't gained any weight in the last four weeks but I am guessing that will change pretty soon here. After everything went well at the appointment I decided to spill the beans at work today. Everyone was really excited so that was fun. It is nice to finally have told everyone so keeping it under wraps isn't in the back of my mind anymore!

There has been a lot going on in terms of trying to figure out what to do in regards to the delivery. We toured the birth center on Monday night and it definitely wasn't what either of us expected. I think the biggest problem was that the hospital doctors do a lot of seemingly unnecessary medical interventions (drugs to speed things up and then drugs to numb the pain because you sped things up too much!) Also, this hospital is really busy and they were telling us that there is a chance that I will have to share a recovery room and if so, Marshall can't stay the night with me which was a big disappointment. Anyway, that got us started on looking at midwives and also possibly a home birth. Long story short, my current OB/GYN's office does not collaborate with midwives but another one down the street does. I was referred to a midwife there that comes highly recommended and so today I called to make my appointment to switch to her. It has been a bit scary to try and change doctors at this point, but it is still early and I really would love to move to someone who has more time for me and also offers a lot more support and options. Also, this midwife actually does her deliveries at the hospital (so I'm told), so that way I feel like this is a good middle ground. I still am not quite sure of everything since I haven't had my appointment with her yet, but we will see. The only real bummer about switching now is that my ultrasound that was scheduled for 12/18 at the OB/GYN's office has been cancelled. Most likely I won't get an ultrasound scheduled with the midwife until after our first appointment in December, but I am willing to wait in order to switch over. Either way, we have been contemplating doing the 3D ultrasound here in town at 17 weeks just to find out early. I guess we are just really impatient about finding out!! We'll see if we are able to get an appointment and a good price.

The Second Trimester is here!

So there are quite a few differing opinions as to when the second trimester "officially" starts. Some sources say 12 weeks, others say 13.3 weeks and still others hold out all of the way until week 14. Now that we are at 14 weeks though, we are in the second trimester no matter who you consult! It is very exciting to be moving into a new stage. I have noticed that my nausea has decreased as has the extreme fatigue. I still do get tired easily and have a varied assortment of symptoms, but overall I am doing pretty good. I haven't noticed any major changes in the way I look, although now when I press on my stomach I am surprised as it is actually quite hard, so I guess something is happening. This Monday evening we have a tour scheduled at the Clovis Community Birth Center. I am hoping that since this is the hospital I would be delivering at if we decide to go that route that they have a nice atmosphere. We watched the documentary called "The Business of Being Born" a few months ago and ever since that Marshall has been pretty set on wanting a home birth. I myself still want to explore my options :) Anyway, one of my more prevalent symptoms this week has been some serious heartburn. The old wives tales behind that is it means that your baby will have a full head of hair when it's born. For sake of comparison, I have attached our first baby pictures. We definitely weren't baldies, but it doesn't look like *too* much hair! By the way, I love Marshall's little conehead... what a cutie!

Staying Busy (Sort of)...

Seems like a lot has been happening in the last few days, which is good because it makes time go by more quickly! Marshall and I started the process of registering last week and ended up deciding on Babies R Us and Target as our choices. Everyone who knows me knows that I love to plan ahead, but man registering was overwhelming!! We started the process not because we are expecting gifts but more so to organize a list for ourselves of everything that we are going to need to buy before this little baby comes into this world!! After a few hours of looking at things like hundreds of bottles, strollers and cribs and not knowing what was better than the next we finally finished up! Now it is just a matter of fine tuning everything. Surprisingly we did decide on a nursery "theme" quite quickly. We definitely want to stay gender neutral with yellows, greens and browns, so a jungle themed nursery is what we ended up going with. It is very cute and we are definitely excited about it. I also did take the time to update the blog with a new poll (boy or girl??) and also with the weekly pictures we have been taking to see if there has been any "progress"! I think I look more bloated in the early weeks but not so much anymore... definitely not obviously pregnant but I know that will come in time. Other than that, I have been thoroughly enjoying the five day weekend I decided to take to stretch out my veteran's day. This Tuesday marks the official start of the second trimester which is definitely an exciting thing!